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AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Tammy Flanagan
Tammy Flanagan is the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc., which conducts federal retirement planning workshops and seminars. She has spent 25 years helping federal employees take charge of their retirement by understanding their benefits.
For more retirement planning help, tune in to "For Your Benefit," presented by the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc. live on Federal News Radio on Mondays at 10 a.m. ET on WFED AM 1500 in the Washington-metro area. Archived shows are available on NITPInc.com.
Rates and Returns
May 18, 2012 In April, I wrote about a webinar I had conducted on the subject of long- and short-term planning for retirement. Following the webinar, participants posted hundreds of questions about topics I had covered. I decided that over the next two weeks, I’ll try to address some of them. So let’s ...
Best Dates to Retire 2013
May 11, 2012 Download the Calendar: Best Dates to Retire 2013 It’s that time of year again. Are you thinking about setting your retirement date for 2013? This column is designed to help you find the most advantageous date for your departure. If you’re planning to retire sometime this year, you can read ...
TSP, Pensions and More
May 4, 2012 There has been a fair amount of activity on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch lately with regard to provisions that could affect the retirement planning process for federal employees. In case you missed them, here are links to some important recent news stories that are worth taking into ...
Five Retirement Tips
April 27, 2012 Earlier this year, I presented a webinar for the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program called “Retirement: It’s Not Too Early (or Late) to Think About It.” During the webinar, I discussed five tips for planning for your retirement. I thought I’d share them here. Think about retirement from the first ...
The Roth Option
April 20, 2012 One big piece of news in the federal retirement arena lately was the announcement that federal employees (well, some federal employees anyway) will be able to opt in to the Thrift Savings Plan’s new Roth option starting May 7. This new benefit has been in the process of being implemented ...
Happy Financial Literacy Month!
April 13, 2012 Since April is officially Financial Literacy Month, the Office of Personnel Management has been providing information to help employees plan for the future. Some of the tips involve things you might have forgotten about -- such as savings bonds and other Treasury securities. The savings bonds my parents and my ...
Divorce Decrees
April 6, 2012 It’s spring, and love is in the air. I wish I could say that love and marriage last forever, but sometimes they don’t. Divorces happen, and they can affect retirement benefits. Here is a recent email I received from a retiree under the Civil Service Retirement System who is divorced ...
Are You Counting on Social Security?
March 30, 2012 My inspiration for this week’s column came from two sources. The first was Lester Austin, an enthusiastic and personable public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration, who was this week’s guest on “For Your Benefit,” the weekly radio program that I co-host on Federal News Radio. The second was ...
The Sites You Need
March 23, 2012 Isn’t it amazing to see how technology has changed our lives? In 1988, when I first started training federal employees about their retirement benefits, I would create transparency slides. Remember the thin plastic film that was used with an overhead projector? I would use washable markers to illustrate my examples, ...
From CSRS to FERS
March 15, 2012 Every once in a while I receive an email that seems to sum up a recurring question, and it inspires one of my columns. This was one of those weeks. John from Wilmington, N.C., sent a message that really caught my attention, for several reasons. First, I might have been ...
